Switching Off Cash Supply Causes a Nasty Shock

When the global economy went into hibernation to try to halt the spread of Covid-19, companies everywhere scrambled to get their hands on cash. Banks, shareholders and governments were all tapped for money, but self-help played a big part too. Businesses tried to clear their inventories, to get paid quickly for their products and services, and to pay their bills more slowly. Do all those things and a company should have more funds in the bank to pay wages and other fixed costs — crucial if you want to survive an economic crisis of this scale.

As is so often the case, those creative types in the finance industry have come up with a smorgasbord of ways to help firms increase their cash holdings. The oldest and most common is called factoring. Essentially, if you’re a cash-strapped company whose customers are dragging their feet on paying their bills, no problem: A bank will give you an advance on those invoices, for a fee. Another increasingly fashionable technique is a more complicated service known as reverse factoring or supply-chain finance. This allows a company’s suppliers to get paid what they’re owed quickly. The company then refunds the finance provider at a later date.